witching to LED light saves electricity, money and additional maintenance costs. This only happens when you switch to high quality LED lighting products only.
Discover the best way to choose an LED lamp
Find out what factors to consider on packaging labels to get the best quality LED lighting products on the market.
LED bulbs and ceiling lights have revolutionized energy-efficient lighting. Even here, you can say that CFL bulbs are a temporary solution to energy-efficient lighting, while LED lights are largely replacing incandescent bulbs. You can easily find the excellent quality LED lighting products in the market, considering some important factors such as power factor, light appearance, CRI (color rendering index) available on packaging labels. Get an in-depth look at the key factors to consider for the best results.
6 factors to identify quality LED bulbs
There are six factors to consider before purchasing an LED bulb.
Lumens per watt
Gone are the days when bulb power was measured in watts. In fact, it is a measure of power. In the days of incandescent bulbs, the power of lighting was checked by the power rating, in which a 100 watt lamp can emit more light than a 60 watt lamp. The reason is that incandescent lamps use the same filament material, but 98% of the energy is wasted as heat and only 2% is used to make light. So the only way to increase their light output is to increase the power. It was our mindset to look at the wattage on the packaging to find out how bright it would be. But in fact, the rated wattage has nothing to do with the brightness of the bulb.
New bulbs use much less energy than incandescent bulbs.
The new unit of measurement for light bulbs is Lumens. The lumens scale describes how much light or brightness the human eye can perceive, the higher the number of lumens, the brighter the light.
The correct way to measure the efficiency of all light sources is based on the number of lumens they can produce per watt.
9 to 12 watt LEDs can produce the same number of lumens as standard 40 or 60 watt bulbs. So, if you want to replace a 60 watt bulb, go for an LED bulb that produces nearly 800 lumens; while for a 40 watt bulb, opt for 450 lumens.
Power factor
The power factor is really an essential parameter to check the quality of any electrical instrument.
LED lights with a power factor of 0.9 and above are of high quality.
color rendering index
IRC may be new to you, but it’s important to take this into account. It measures the effect of a light bulb on the perceived color of objects based on an ideal or natural light source.
CRI is rated on a scale of 0 to 100 and only sunlight is rated as having a CRI of 100.
In general, lighting with a CRI of 85 to 90 is considered very good while a CRI of 90 or higher is excellent and can be used for tasks that require very accurate color rendering.
You need lighting with a high CRI for places such as art galleries, museums or jewelry stores where objects are displayed.
Also to be discovered -> Main advantages of using LEDs in your home
Color temperature
LEDs are available in a wide range of color temperatures from 2800K to 6500K as mentioned below.
Neutral white: 4000K-4500K (bright little yellow sunlight)
Cool white: 5000K-6500K (pure white, cool daylight)
In LEDs, a color temperature of about 2700K to 3300K gives the same color tone (yellowish light) as conventional incandescent or halogen lamps.
Heat sink
Remember that for LEDs to last a long time, they need a heat sink. This is why LED bulbs have metal fins that go down the side, which makes them different from the classic bulb. The heat sink dissolves any excess heat and keeps the LEDs at the best operating temperature, while increasing the life of the main LED chip.
LED chip lifetime
At this point, LEDs score really high, as their lifespan typically ranges from 20,000 to 50,000 hours. Therefore, LEDs are ideal for use in areas where maintenance is difficult or where long life is essential.
